Plummer at the top of his game at age 78
Christopher Plummer as a crafty
Julius Caesar in George Bernard Shaw’s serio-comic Caesar and Cleopatra
– what a marvelous way to tie up the Stratford Shakespeare Festival
on so many levels.
Settling comfortably into the
intimate confines of the Studio Theatre it was clear from the moment
Shaun Smyth’s Ishmael made his first appearance, this would be theatre
designed to either entice one’s curious nature or worse, send audiences open...
Callow Showcases Sonnets with Vigour and Fun
While greatly admired, Shakespeare’s
154 sonnets, for students and much of the general public, have sadly
remained somewhat of a buried treasure – always there lurking behind
the Bard’s great plays yet never properly unearthed for wider consump open...
STRATFORD – After
only a few uncomfortably boring minutes of the latest incarnation of
All’s Well That Ends Well, it becomes painfully obvious why this
is one of Shakespeare’s all-too-well documented “problem” plays. open...
Compelling Hamlet a must see at Stratford STRATFORD – An opening
half of any production lasting nearly two hours could be an arduous
task for any audience to endure both mentally and physically – regardless
of its stamina.
Politically incorrect Shrew still an intriguing play STRATFORD – There
are countless uncomfortable moments throughout The Taming of the
Shrew when it’s difficult both to watch and comprehend the overt
sexism that seemed quite the norm in Elizabethan times.
Love’s Labour’s Lost in translation STRATFORD – While
not a complete write-off, this version of Love’s Labour’s Lost
appears somewhat tired with the production’s many low notes competing
for prominence with the high points.
Dow knocks it out of the park in Cabaret STRATFORD – Sometime
in the not-too-distant future, some enterprising soul is going to devise
an ingenious method of packaging or bottling the essence of the multi-talented
Bruce Dow.
The Music Man a harmonious outing at the Avon STRATFORD – With an
oft-produced show like Meredith Wilson’s The Music Man, it
would be easy to dismiss it just another pleasant old chestnut.
However, when it’s musical
staged by the Stratford Shakespeare Festiva open...
Romeo and Juliet – not one for the ages
STRATFORD – Give director
Des McAnuff high marks for an intriguing opening to the Bard’s classic
tale of two star-crossed lovers – their feuding families now engaged
in a bloody gang war complete replete with blades, guns and storm-trooping
p open...
A Delicate Balance sparkles but not quite a gem
STRATFORD – Leaving the Tom Patterson Theatre one question seemed to pop up almost continuously on the drive home – what would A Delicate Balance have been like with the late William Hutt in the Stratford Festival’s production?
It may be a tad unf open...
Monette’s ideal final production
Photo: Tom McCamus as Sir Robert Chiltern and David Snelgrove as Lord Arthur Goring in An Ideal Husband. Photo by Richard Bain.
STRATFORD – With Oscar Wilde’s An Ideal Husband taking centre stage at the Festival Theatre, Richard Monette’s 14-year open...
Of Mice and Men first rate entertainment
STRATFORD – John Steinbeck’s tragic novella Of Mice and Men has been retold countless times on film, stage and even in a 1970 opera but director Martha Henry’s adaptation of the American classic is as dramatically potent as any of its predecessors.
open...
To Kill a Mockingbird a moving theatrical experience
STRATFORD, ON – When tackling To Kill a Mockingbird, Stratford Festival director Susan H. Schulman had two sizable hurdles to overcome.
Firstly, Christopher Segel’s theatrical adaptation will always be compared to Harper Lee’s powerful Pulitzer Pr open...
Akin and Goad shine in Othello
STRATFORD – To do justice to what is arguably Shakespeare’s most satisfying and intense tragedy – Othello – two essentials are prerequisite – a director that understands and can convey the play’s complexities and a top-flight cast to deliver the good open...
Gershwin musical ideal seasonal fare
STRATFORD – Listening to Gershwin classics like Nice Work If You Can Get It, marveling at the non-stop precision tap dancing and chuckling at the antics of the leads in My One and Only is grand fun.
But it’s not really nostalgia in the classic sen open...
Merchant too low-key and uninspired
STRATFORD – With its reliance on its – albeit historically accurate – theme of anti-Semitism, Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice is at the best of times hard to sit through without squirming uncomfortably.
Yet its distasteful subject aside, the open...
Comedy of Errors no mistake for Monette
STRATFORD – Oh to have been a fly on the wall as departing artistic director Richard Monette plotted his directorial course for Shakespeare’s slapstick farce The Comedy of Errors.
Did he set out to test those choppy waters unkindly critics oft tim open...
Oh what a beautiful production
STRATFORD – The exuberant and timeless music of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein 11 alone would likely have guaranteed the Stratford Festival a success with Oklahoma but there’s more than just classic show tunes to this engaging production.
T open...
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Brad Moon, City Media columnist, talks about fatherhood, life in the burbs and yet more frustrations of modern life. 
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